On the recordApril 5, 2011
today I rise in support of my resolution designating April 2011 as Tsunami Awareness Month. The recent events in Japan serve as a reminder of the importance of tsunami preparedness and mitigation. As we recently saw, tsunamis can strike at any time, continue for hours, wash away homes, buildings, and roads, and claim thousands of lives. Deadly tsunamis have struck Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands within the last 150 years. All coastline communities in the United States are at risk of being impacted by tsunamis. Sixty-five years ago, my home State of Hawaii experienced the most devastating and destructive tsunami in its history, which claimed the lives of 159 individuals. Hawaii's geographic location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean makes us extremely vulnerable to tsunamis because 80 percent of all tsunamis occur in the Pacific. To encourage citizens to educate themselves on tsunami preparedness, President Obama has designated March 20-26, 2011, as Tsunami Awareness Week. For the month of April, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service in Hawaii will conduct activities to raise public awareness of the dangers of tsunamis and commemorate the lives lost to the April 1, 1946 tsunami.…
